It is you personal choice whether you like the clone devices or not. Some say that it is a shame to produce one, while others believe that this is a way to go as there is no point in spending hundreds of dollars for a premium flagship device. Let’s not go too deep into this as we have a new review ready. This time around we are looking at the Landvo S6, which is a Samsung Galaxy S6 wannabe device. Is it any good? Let’s find out.
We want to thank Giztop.com for sending this smartphone for a review!
VIDEO REVIEW
UNBOXING
The device comes in a plain box and there is nothing to talk about. However, considering a very low price tag of this product, the presentation is quite good.
The packaging contents include the smartphone, 1A of power charging brick along with the tangle-free USB cable, SIM ejector tool and a screen protector. Overall, it is a fairly standard packaging.
DESIGN
The Landvo S6 has almost identical design to the Samsung Galaxy S6, but differs significantly on the inside. To begin with, it has 5 inches 720p display.
On the bottom of the device you can find a physical home button, which has a great tactile response. However, there is no embedded fingerprint scanner.
Also, there are multitasking and back capacitive keys, which have a nice backlight.
On the top you can find a 5MP front firing shooter, proximity sensor, notification LED and the earpiece.
The backplate is made out of glass and it is not removable. Although I didn’t get any scratches after one week of use, I doubt it is a Gorilla Glass solution.
There is a 16MP camera, which is likely a result of interpolation from 8MP sensor. Also, you can find a single tone LED flash. And yes, there is a heart rate monitor. Not sure about the purpose of this sensor on any smartphone, but it seems that it is measuring something. Please don’t ask about the accuracy as I’m not too crazy about my heart rate.
The device has a high quality metal frame.
On the right you can find a power on/off switch, which is made out of metal as well. It has a great tactile response, but it wobbling a bit. Also, there are two nano SIM card slots, which can be removed using a supplied tool. Sadly, there is no microSD card slot.
On the left you can find volume up and down keys.
On the top side there is a noise cancelling mic along with IR blaster imitation (checked with a few different IR remote control apps).
On the bottom you can find a headset jack, mic, micro USB charging port and the speaker grill. Honestly, I don’t like the placement of headset jack as I prefer having it on the top side of the smartphone.
Overall, the device feels sturdy and well made. The button placement is right for me and I found it easy to operate the device with one hand.
SPECS
| Display | 5 inches 720p |
| Processor | Mediatek MT6582 quad-core (1.3 GHz) (32-bit) |
| RAM | 1GB |
| Camera | 5MP Front/16MP Back (f/2.0 aperture) |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth, 3G, GPS, WIFI, GSM, EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+ |
| Battery | 2.550 mAh Li-polimer (non-removable) |
| Dimensions | 14.38 x 7.07 x 0.68 cm |
| OS | Android 4.4.2 Kitkat |
| Storage | 16GB (not expandable) |
DISPLAY
The 720p panel is quite sharp and vivid. It is not the best panel out there, but very good for this price range of smartphones.
UI, APPS and PERFORMANCE
The device is running Android 4.4.2 Kitkat with a fake Touchwiz skin on top of it to replicate the Samsung’s UI. The OS is running quite smoothly, but not all the time. There are hiccups there and there and sometimes it takes too long to open up the apps. Overall, it is not the fastest UI I’ve seen.
Still, it is not the slowest either and I already received a software update, so it may be fixed soon. Also, the UI has some neat features like motion controls. I was actually surprised that they work quite well.
Sadly, there were some app compatibility issues like the Google Camera app could not connect to the camera. Moreover, the essential app like Google Chrome browser wouldn’t launch all the time. This is definitely a software bug, which hopefully will be fixed soon.
BENCHMARKS
The Antutu benchmark score of 18099 does not impress at all as it falls into upper low-end devices category.
GAMING
On the other hand, graphically intensive tasks like 3D gaming are handled pretty well. There are some minor skipped frames, but overall the gaming experience is good. As usual, the device tends to heat up a bit, but nothing out of ordinary.
MULTIMEDIA
Let’s check out some multimedia options and start by the music player app, which is a pretty standard affair. The loudspeaker is loud, but the sound quality is just average as the sound coming out is not balanced at all. Moreover, the speaker starts cracking at the highest volume output.
The gallery app is simple and easy to use. It performs well and the picture loading time is great. Also, zooming in and out is near perfect. As far as the 1080P video playback, it is surprisingly smooth and scrolling back and forth throughout the video is almost seamless.
Internet browsing is not the fastest I’ve seen, but it’s alright and no major issues here.
CAMERA
As far as the picture quality I was surprised that Landvo S6 can produce some really nice looking images. The daylight pictures have plenty of detail and look sharp. Also, the colours look natural and even the dynamic range is great. These are one of the better looking photos I’ve seen in the smartphone, which costs just above $100.
Once you take the smartphone inside, you can still capture some decent looking pictures. However, you have to hold the device steady to avoid blurriness and the colours seem to look a bit washed out. Also, the level of detail is not that great.
On the other hand, the camera can take some good looking macro shots, which have plenty of resolved detail.
The low-light shots are just average and the embedded flash does not illuminate the scene that well in complete darkness.
The front facing camera does a great selfie job for the social media needs.
As far as the video recording goes, the quality is above average for its class. The device captures decent amount of detail, the auto-exposure is okay and the colours look natural.
CONNECTIVITY
As far as connectivity goes, the GPS lock speed is great, but weaker than the Snapdragon 801 chip I tested. Also, the Bluetooth seems to working fine and the call quality is okay. However, both the 2G and 3G signals are weaker than it should be. Hopefully, this is just a software bug that can be fixed.
BATTERY LIFE
The battery can last you a full day only if you are an average user. If you are more on the heavy usage side, I would recommend carrying a power bank as the device seems to be taking much energy on the standby mode.
FINAL WORDS
So there you have it. The Landvo S6, the Samsung Galaxy S6 wannabe. If you love the design and the built quality of the original Galaxy device, but don’t want spend a ridiculous amount of money, this is the closest option you can get.
The Landvo features a solid built quality with a quality metal and glass construction. Also, it has a decent looking screen. However, the UI definitely needs some more polishing as it is not as smooth as you would love to have.
It is a pleasant surprise, but the camera is very good for this category of low priced devices. On the other hand, the battery life and signal strength could be definitely better. A MicroSD card slot could have also been a great addition.
In the end, it is not a perfect smartphone, but if you really love the aesthetics and the built quality of the Galaxy S6, the Landvo S6 may be the device for you. Of course, if you don’t mind a few shortcomings.
We want to thank Giztop for sending this device for a review.
